Step 5: Rolling trolley

Step 6: Product in use

This is the final prototype, don't forget to water it before you leave for vacation and make sure the wicks are drenched in water.

Intro:

Everyone knows the problem. You come back from vacation but when you arrive at home you already see it. All your plants are withered. The only solution you know is to call your neighbours for help before you leave on vacation but who has the time to do that when you're packing all your bags? With our solution you'll never have problems with withered plants. Our solution will help you to keep all your plants healthy all vacation long!

With this instructable we are going to show you how to make an easy self-watering bin for multiple plants. It's fun to do and it does not take a lot of time. We made this in approximately 12 hours. We will show you a self-watering bin with some extra features either you can chose if you want to use them or if you just want to have a quick solution for your withered plants!

Step 1: Principle

This product makes use of the principle of wicking. The plants that you prepare need to have a wick inside the pot. This wick can be as simple as a nylon rope hanging out of the pot. Via the principle of capillarity the wick will suck up water from the reservoir, and transport it up into the soil in the pot. This way the soil will stay at the same level of humidity, even though the plant is using up the water in the soil. IMPORTANT: in order for this to work, you need to water your plants manually the first time!

I have added a new step, which is now step 1, that explains the principle in short. If you would like to know more you can look it up on the internet, it's a well known principle and has proven to work very good.